Hermes Guild

Contents

Introduction

This guild is raised to become the strongest power on the Central continent, with the ambition to found an Empire to unify the continent and get the reward for it in real life. The relationships within the guild are based on power, not on friendship.

Actual organisation

Leaders

Bardray is the face of the Hermes Guild and the Haven Empire. Via the Hermes Guilds' rules of 'The Strongest Shall Rule the Weak' he was first appointed as champion, then as king and finally as Emperor of Haven. He is one of the most powerful players in RR and is the strongest knight with the class of Black Knight. Bardray also has his own entourage of elite knights which he directly controls. Although seemingly a lone pinnacle within the Haven Empire, Bardray only exercises such substantial control in the Hermes Guild with the agreement of the Head of Council, Layafe [1].
He was advertised as "the strongest warrior on the Continent"[2] and officially took the leadership over the guild from the previous leader Lafaye's hands, after leading the Kallamore kingdom take over[3].

This council is doing all the strategic management of Hermes. It is functioning at a very high level, and their course of action is sharp, blunt and very efficient. This council is led by Lafaye.
"The important goals and detailed plans for the guild are determined by Lafaye and his advisers. Things like the development of the kingdom, measuring personnel, military education and diplomatic negotiations were done by Lafaye" [4]. A brillant mind and truly a great manager, managing an Empire behind the curtains.

The high council

The Hermes guild recruited 50 leaders. Those leaders are playing a key role in the new founded Haven Empire. Each leader has his own department [5].

Leaders's list

Military forces

Black knight elite Corp

An elite group of warrior, fully dedicated to Hermes. They are the top player of Hermes Guild. Through their agreement, they decided that the very strongest among them would be the leader and govern the others [9].
Their law was that if someone among the Elite Guard became stronger than Bard Ray at any time, he would then become the leader.
As such, the leader of Hermes Guild had changed a few times in the early stages of Royal Road. For both Bard Ray and the Elite Guard, it became an opportunity to become stronger faster through well-intended competition.
After Bard Ray was able to take over, this iron rule may no longer be applied to the king, which receives the full support of the entire guild.

The Knight of Crema

Lead by Polon, who was known as Bard Ray's rival in Hermes Guild. Lafaye ordered him to disturb and completely destroy Weed and his colleagues (if Weed brought any) during Immortal legion quest[10]. For this mission, Polon brought 200 knights and seven battlemages with 130 deputy magicians. Zabrin (a Necromancer) acts as his informer, and told him Weed's whereabouts[11]. He's trying to get the Undead Legion into their hands and recruit Necromancers one by one but his original target was to eliminate Weed. They attacked Weed at El Vance Monastery situated in Natalia plain, then followed him into underground dungeon underneath it[12]. There they were forced to fight with Avannahs and lastly The great king Avannah, Lordriam. By the time they found Lordriam, Weed was already dead. They killed Lordriam and found "The Diamond of the Sanctum (Lordriam's item)" and some of Weed's items (3 old barley breads, chieves, rusty broken helmet, wriggling worm and a molar of a skeleton).

Other military factions within Hermes

Multiple armies, with multiple profession such as knight, archer, mage and priest.
Including :

A unique Naval Force, including multiple Armada. They had the reputation to be the strongest navy at the sea.[13]

A high level Assassin troop, and a specific alliance with the Night blade assassin guild (v28), which is targeting potential opponents [14].

Special users ressources

Exclusive High level users, who gets full support of the guild for their special skill. For example, the necromancer [15].

Recruitment

Hermes development

The Origin

Hermes Guild was founded by 7 people [17]. Very little is known. For example, they knew each other since Continent of Magic[18] and that at the early stage of the game they went to Lavias[19].

Original Members

The original Members of the group are:

Bard ray

Dain, who was left on Lavias

Lafaye (also called Raphael)

The Conquest of the Central Continent

Main stages

Here are the main stage of their conquest:

Founding a guild

The only thing we know is that there was a secret master plan, probably designed by Lafaye himself. And that they agreed upon.

Taking over local guilds

This stage was not described. But the hints are strong: coup d'Etat, assassins & the same policy was applied during the Hegemony alliance period.

Taking over Haven kingdom

This stage marks the fact that all local guilds were either destroyed, swallowed or had to submit to Hermes power, including the NPC guilds. While taking over the kingdom, the guild focused on preparing the next stage of their master plan.

Taking over Kallamore kingdom

The first step of their plan for supremacy. They aimed at taking out their strongest NPC competitor: the former Kallamore Empire. Therefore they became the strongest nation of the Central Continent and were ready to announce the founding of their Empire.

Installing the "Hegemony Alliance"

Preparing the take over of the Central Continent, they made an alliance with the other major guilds of the Continent. During that period, all the smaller guild of the continent where either destroyed, swallowed or had to submit to the larger guilds. The Central Continent became a less friendly place for gamers. This stage was also done to watch over them.

Striving to Control the Seas

The visionary Hermes guild strongly invested at controlling the Sea. In the process, they made a bargain with their ennemies, the pirate alliance.

Taking over the other kingdoms

After taking over the Kallamore kingdom, taking over the other kingdoms would be done in 3 more steps. The first step was taking over the various other kingdoms. The second step was taking over the remaining guilds. The second step was taking out the Embinyu Church which was also put under surveillance earlier on.
But Hermes had not taken care of Embinyu. This was mostly done by Weed. Instead they had to face the North occupying the small southern area of the Arpen Kingdom. But after the Puhol Fortress battle (v46c1) the occupied area was retaken back by the Arpen Kingdom making all the forces of the Hermes guild retreated back to there kingdom's territory.

Final stages

After taking over Kallamore kingdom, they first took over Lasalle Kingdom (and the Tullen Kingdom through a third party: the Beden Guild v29). At that stage, their force is rising at the scale of an Empire (v30c4).

The Black Lion Guild was the first major guild to fall. And the Hermes power is equivalent to the other major guilds combined ( Cloud Guild, Roam Guild and Black Sword mercenary group).(v30c4)

Taking over the smaller country

More to come

Victory upon the remaining larger guild.

This epic battle took place the the Benzen Plains and in the Rubidom Mountains (v35c1)

The war in the Northern Continent

An efficient strategy

They planned to destroy the Earth Palace, and then thoroughly demolish Morata and Vargo Fortress… Before scattering throughout the entire north in one stroke, in smaller combat units of 50,000~100,000. (v41c3)

A unique force

The Haven Empire had called half of their force to take over the Arpen kingdom (v?c?).
This meant 7 divisions for a total of 2.1 million troops. (v41c3)

stages of the war

First stage

More to come (v?c?)

Failing for the first time at the Pallos bridge

More to come (v?c?)

Epic battle at Earth castle

At this battle, 5 divisions were present, which means 1.5 million troops (v41c3). They had to face Weed, Hestiger, the Geomchi, the avians and millions of low and middle level users from the North. The leader of this invasion were:

Facing the orc tribes at Vargo Fortress

More to come (v?c?)

Puhol Fortress battle and outcome

More to come (v?c?)

Strengh and weaknesses

Strengh

Since their principle is based on supremacy, their members which are mostly high level players, focus on combat power.
Also the management of the high council is brilliant and very efficient.
This reflects in their combat skill and their ability to organize their forces in a coherent, smart and efficient way.
This make it possible to hunt a bone dragon [20] or even to hunt on a foreign ground (Melbourne mine incident).

Therefore, the number of their competitors is droppping at high speed :

Single guild capable of standing against Hermes were only 7, but when considering guild alliances, more than 15 were able to deal with Hermes’ hegemony[21].

First, it was limited to the major guild of the Alliance for Supremacy.

Weaknesses

Despite their huge military power, their ideology is their main weakness. Their greed for power is going against the gaming spirit of many and the interest of any self sufficient users, like the dark gamers or players like Weed. This predatory and destructive spirit leads to lot of destruction and strong dissatisfaction among users.

Also, most of Hermes users have high infamy [23] and the murderer’s mark. Therefore the penalties for dying are higher.

It is also what led many NPCs to rebel, especially after the fall of the imperial palace and Weed setting an example of hunting down Hermes users at Formos Castle in the Tullen kingdom [24].

Or even to convert to Embinyu Church. Thus, leading the entire continent into a huge mayhem due to the expansion of the evil church. Even if they monitored the church, Hermes was lucky that Weed took care of Embinyu.